So my recruiter has offered me a plea bargain: they’ll reimburse me the first leg of my trip as long as I agree in writing not to sue the school district.
This from the head guy stationed in Portland.
My Vice Principal also agrees that I probably have a case, and is willing to stamp my original application and send it on to the school district. Even though miss you-know-who has threatened to penalize the school in some way should I pursue a lawsuit through the labor board. (what a woman) At any rate, I am much happier with the school for proving to at least have some ethics, which is what one would hope since it’s a missionary school.
Also, tomorrow Y’s teacher union representative will also be bringing up my case to the school district, since we native English teachers don’t have any formal representation.
Why are they offering me this bargain? Because they know they got caught with their pants down, colluding with someone to practice a bait and switch operation.
Principles would demand I ignore this offer and press on until I get this injustice corrected for all. However, I don’t know and haven’t seen that anybody else cares about justice or standing up for their rights. In addition, the next contract has already been drafted and I have already seen GePIK jobs advertised where they speak of airfare reimbursement (with provisions). So this isn’t a mistake they are going to make again. I have posted on facebook to see if anyone wants to join me, and will wait to see if ethics for all those already injured are worth protecting. If not, I will just protect myself and my loved ones, who sacrificed to get me here, by accepting the plea bargain.
So all of the above response is validating. I mean, you don’t go through all I’ve been through and allow those “what just happened here?” questions to pass by. You trust them. And you have to check and make sure, absolutely sure, that you’ve not been victimized yet again. And then you stand up for yourself. And fight for your rights.
Oh yeah, and Mr. Lee did not show up for class today. Until Ms. Baek came back and informed me that the Vice Principal has instructed me to report him every time he doesn’t show up. Sure. Happy to oblige. He was in class 1-1 period 7.
Hopefully their fear of me and consternation over what to do with me turns into greater respect after this. I do not grease palms. Nor do I give in. Korea. Exile. Fighting.
I wonder if I would still be like this had I grown up here and gotten the social screws applied to me. Or if I would still be this little maverick principled bulldog.
One more day of this battle to go, and then we will see what outcome I can get. But I feel better already.
Hello Korea ! 
i think its ridiculous that it had to come to this though. they have the authority and the funds to reimburse you up to $1000 on airfare. so i dont understand why they didnt just write you a check for a grand and let it stand at that. i guess it really just comes down to the school though
No. It has nothing to do with the school. GePIK gives the school a budget, but it is all reimbursed. The school can agree to pay me the full amount, but the funds they spend on the NETs are audited. So anything the school does which is not in keeping with GePIK policy jeopardizes the school’s position with the NET program. They can be accused of misappropriation of funds and denied future funding.
Even in Korea, contracts are pretty sacrosanct. Nobody is supposed to manipulate them the way they did.
GePIK made an omission, regretted it, then tried to pull a fast one on us so they wouldn’t have to pay what was due us. Only everyone accepted that and allowed them to get away with it. The only reason I can figure they were resistant to working this out with me is that they know they are actually culpable for ALL the multi-stop tickets for ALL the people who were in training programs that they deceived out of half their airfare, and that a win for me means a win for everyone. That’s a lot of change they made that they don’t want to pay back. Basically, you’re all due your airfare to Thailand. We could have all gotten what was due us, and made GePIK have to answer publicly to us in addition to restitution.
They won’t make this omission again in the next contract. But everyone let them get away with a crime. If I’d had even one more teacher stand up to them with me, we’d have had an unstoppable case. And if I didn’t care so much about getting that money into my friends and family’s hands as soon as possible, you can bet you I’d take it all the way to the National Assembly if I’d had to.
Rotten way to run an operation. I won’t be working for GePIK again. I’m much happier with my school now and they respect me more for standing up for my rights. If I sign on again, I can contract with them independent of GePIK. If I go public again, it will be with SMOE or EPIK. Hopefully they have more scruples than GePIK.
what cracks me up is that meg didnt even request her full reimbursement. her coteacher saw how much she paid for the tickets and was like “do you want the whole thing?” i guess these things only happen to meg though
Good to hear that things are (kind of) working out so that you’ll see larger portion of your airfare reimbursement. On top of that, here’s to hoping Mr. Lee either shapes up or ships out in the very near future!